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Counting of ballot papers at a polling station in Tunis, December 17, 2022 during parliamentary elections. YACINE MAHJOUB/AFP
No speeches or tours on Avenue Habib-Bourguiba, emblem of the Tunisian revolution. By the evening of Sunday 18 December, President Kaïs Saïed had still not commented on the turnout in the first round of general elections. With less than 9% of the voters, the number is described as “catastrophic” by the opposition, which is calling for the resignation of the head of state. “He has to cope with the shock, nobody expected such a low rate,” said political scientist Mohamed-Dhia Hammami.
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The “bottom-up democracy building” propagated by Kaïs Saïed, of which the new parliament must be one of the components that favors individuals at the expense of political parties, was brutally swept away on Saturday. A snub for the President of the Republic, who, more than a year after his coup of July 25, 2021 and the dissolution of Parliament, is questioning his legitimacy and that of his political project. After the low turnout (30.5%) in July’s constitutional referendum, the massive abstention in the first round of parliamentary elections further weakens Tunisia’s strongman as negotiations are under way with the International Monetary Fund to enable the country to compete in the heart of an economic downturn to obtain a $1.9 billion loan.
The opposition, which had largely boycotted the election, fired red bullets at Kaïs Saïed this weekend. Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, president of the National Salvation Front, a coalition of opposition parties, compared the turnout to an “8-degree earthquake on the Richter scale” and called for the president’s resignation. A position shared by the Islamic conservative Ennahda party, which “welcomed the decision not to vote for Tunisians”. Abir Moussi, leader of the Free Destourian party, anti-Islamist and who claims to have the legacy of pro-independence President Habib Bourguiba, has asked for early presidential elections to be organised.
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“Not the success of the opposition”
What echo do these attacks find in the population? “You have to be vigilant,” said Afef Daoud, head of the national council of the social democratic party Ettakatol. If the Tunisian people have shown their opposition to the project proposed by the President, this does not mean that they want to return to old political practices. The massive abstention in the parliamentary vote did not lead to a protest in the streets, where the opposition in scattered ranks is still struggling to mobilize. “This abstention is not a success for the opposition, which cannot present any serious alternative today,” emphasizes Afef Daoud.
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Turnout reflected a particularly lackluster campaign, with largely unknown candidates, unclear political platforms and a total lack of media debate. As they went to the polls, some voters believed they knew neither the candidate they were going to vote for nor the real role of the future parliament. After ten years of transition and crises in the country, “Tunisians are so far removed from politics that they no longer trust the institutions, and Kaïs Saïed is paying the price,” explains Mohamed-Dhia Hammami.
The provisional results of the first ballot must be announced by the electoral body on Monday. Ex-President Brahim Bouderbala, who was vying for a second round in his constituency, described non-voters as “unpatriotic and cowardly” in an interview on private radio. For his part, Ahmed Chaftar, an early activist and candidate close to the president, attributed “Tunisian reluctance to vote to media attacks on the electoral process and speculators who ensure that the country continues to suffer from shortages”. A rhetoric with conspiratorial accents that is dear to certain circles around the head of state.
Within the opposition, some are already preparing the post-Kaïs Saïed. After the election, Admiral Kamel Akrout, former national security adviser to President Béji Caïd Essebsi, called on social media for a “peaceful transfer of power” and called for the drafting of a new constitution and electoral law, as well as the introduction of a new electoral law by a constitutional court.
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